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Puma kicks off mobile effort for soccer in 13 world markets

Sportswear maker Puma launched a mobile initiative in 13 different world markets to promote its "Together Everywhere" program for soccer enthusiasts.

The Together Everywhere program works by connecting friends and fans of the same soccer team. After registering, users download their team's song or chant as a ringtone, so that when their team scores they are instantly alerted and teleconferenced in with either their pre-chosen friends or a network of anonymous supporters.

"[The strategy here is to] grow brand affinity and sell more products by putting Puma in the position of serving football fans across Europe by letting them download a team-specific chant or ringtone and then triggering that ringtone song or chant when their team scores," said Dave Batista, partner and executive creative director of Beamland, Boston.

"If they answer, they are immediately placed into a free conference call with friends or family or a group of random supporters," he said.

The 2008 European Soccer Championships are being used as a catalyst for this promotion.

Puma partnered with agencies Beamland and Area/Code Entertainment for this campaign.

The WAP site was developed by Phone Valley and Zed Digital. Zenith Optimedia provided media strategy and execution.

The program is available in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Austria and Switzerland.

"As you can tell, [mobile] is at the heart of the campaign," Mr. Batista said. "To our knowledge, this is the largest -- most markets -- mobile campaign ever.

"It is available in 13 different European countries," he said. "As far as we know, we are also perhaps the first to do event-triggered conference calls using the mobile platform across markets."

Mr. Batista also said that this same principle could be used for American-preferred sports such as hockey or for specific special events including elections and speeches.

"Any time a group of interested parties want to come together to immediately celebrate or discuss a real-world event," he said.

Beamland works with clients such as Mini, Deutsche Bank, Bed Bath & Beyond and L.L. Bean.

Area/Code is an independent creative development agency. The New York-based company develops games and entertainment for clients including Disney, MTV, Nokia, A&E and the Discovery Channel.

"We want to connect people in real time no matter where they are watching the game," Mr. Batista said. "For example, imagine you're watching the game at a local pub, your dad's watching at home, your brother's at the game in Zurich, and your best friend is studying abroad and watching in Paris.

"Through this program, when your team scores you can truly be together everywhere in those amazing, crazy moments of goal-induced joy," he said.

"Also, from watching games in bars, we had noticed the behavior of fans calling each on their mobiles shortly after their team scores. We just scaled it up, let them talk to more people at once and gave it to them for free."